Before the second sentry could turn its head toward the sudden weight falling beside it, Sol was already in front of it.
He clamped his bare hand around its dripping mandibles, smothering its screech, and drove the Dreadwing blade straight up under its lower jaw and into its braincase.
Click.
Silence returned to the tunnel.
Sol extracted his weapons, letting Orphos quietly drink the twin soul-streams. He looked around the vast, arched tunnel, noticing several other dark fissures branching off in different directions.
This is just one gate out of dozens, Sol realized, wiping his blade. An entire subterranean network, completely untouched.
He stepped past the fallen guards and pushed through the archway.
After another a thousand paces, the narrow tunnel abruptly ended, opening up onto a massive, cliff-like stone shelf that overlooked a colossal subterranean sinkhole.
Sol stopped at the edge of the shelf, looking down into the abyssal chamber below.
